by Xander Hades
“That’s what Óscar was saying,” Rocky said and smiled, “but he was sure you were talking about us.”
“No.” Val shook her head. “We talked about her.”
“I don’t know…” Rocky looked at the empty chair Gina had been in. “I don’t get what any woman would see in him…”
“A large bank account,” Val said nodding. “Gina was hired to join us today. And to join him tonight as well.”
“She’s a hooker?” Rocky asked, surprised he hadn’t guessed. “In my neighborhood, you see them all the time, most of them are friendly…” He saw the look on her face. “I mean, they’re polite. But this one was…” He gestured to the chair.
“Expensive.” Val put in. “He’s trying hard to impress you.”
“He did.” Rocky said and lay the cards down on the table like presenting a royal flush.
“What’s this?”
“Prepaid honeymoon suit for the night. Full room service and bar. On him.” He picked up the cards again. “He must really want me.”
“Rocky,” Val said, “I really want you, too. But I’m not buying you five-hundred-dollar hotel rooms.” She looked around and slipped a hand over his lap to squeeze him through his suit pants. “Though…we might as well take him up on it. Unless…you’d rather see me get banned from this place?”
Her look was pure seduction.
“You’re sure you don’t mind taking such an expensive gift from him?”
She looked troubled. “Seriously? I don’t like it. But…it is paid for. And much as I love the kids and all that, a nice quiet night all to ourselves when you’re not on call to unstop a toilet or handle some other crisis…sounds kind of nice. I miss the carefree time we had at Sturgis. I miss you.”
He swallowed hard. Yeah…he missed that, too. He lifted her hand to his lips, planting a soft kiss across her knuckles. “In that case then, the car is waiting!” he said, playing up the silly over-the-top romance. Val couldn’t stop laughing when he ejected from his chair so fast, it flew over backward and crashed into a gentleman behind Rocky who was sipping his soup.
“I am sorry,” Rocky said, picking up the chair. He looked to the maître d’ and called him over. “Do you still have the credit card on file from the meal?” he asked, pointing to the table where Val was covering her mouth and fighting to stop her attack of the giggles.
“Of course, sir, is there something else you desire?”
“Yeah.” Rocky said, patting the shoulder of the man he’d hit with the chair. “Add his meal to that card, will you?”
“Yes, sir.”
And while Val’s laughter was absolutely the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard in his life, that obsequious “yes, sir” had to be running a close second.
Chapter 15
The fantasy came to an abrupt halt the next day. After an amazing night with Val at one of the nicest resorts in the city, coming home was an abrupt letdown. The hotel looked positively seedy when they got out of the limo. And having to run to a temporary warehouse job he’d lined up previously definitely reminded Rocky of what reality was.
All the way back down to minimum wage.
Not that the work was exactly challenging. It was good exercise and if he couldn’t exactly fight, at least lifting heavy boxes and large drums kept him limber. The warehouse was huge, one of those vast hollow caves of steel that seem to go on forever. Forklifts ran helter-skelter over the floor, fussy little ants that scurried to tidy things away.
People ran or skated from shelf to shelf to gather pieces for orders. They were lightning fast. They had to be, a supervisor stood on an upturned crate and timed them. The fastest were rewarded with praise and the occasional trinket, much like tossing a fish at an unusually well-trained seal. The slowest, reportedly, did not return to work.
All of this was explained to him before he was given his first assignment. “Cut open this pallet,” his supervisor said, “and stack the boxes over there. Make sure the labels are out and cut the top off the boxes so all they have to do is reach in and grab one, got it?”
Rocky nodded and dove to it. The wrap on the pallet split open, unfolding before him. It looked like he’d be unloading wine for a while. He took the first box, sliced off the lid and placed it where indicated. He followed that with the next. He’d done ten when the supervisor walked by and yelled, “You should be done by now, faster!”
Rocky doubled his efforts and cut and stacked and finished the pallet. He looked over at the square he’d made of boxes filled with wine bottles. It sagged a little, but it was pretty good. He pulled up the pallet and gathered the wrap. He stuffed the wrap into a nearby garbage can and stacked the pallet on two others that were sitting in a corner, then set to work on the next set of wine, more pallets unloaded, until his back and shoulders ached, but with that pleasant burn that came of hard work.
“Not bad,” his supervisor said. Rocky jumped, he hadn’t heard the man come behind him. “You’ll get faster as you do it more often. Go on off to lunch, see me after.”
Rocky didn’t have much of a lunch, the gleanings were slim at the motel. He did manage to get a half a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich and he took it out on the loading dock. He watched the traffic as he ate, noting the trucks that flowed through, the cars that belonged in the neighborhood and those that belonged to the company owners and highly skilled employees.
While it hadn’t been a bad morning, Rocky was quickly coming to realize that brute labor like this was…well…hard work. I should have learned a trade. Even if I couldn’t finish my degree, I still should have learned to be a machinist or welder or… something.
A black Mercedes with smoked-out windows pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the highway just beyond. He watched it pull out, wondering why the car looked familiar. Rocky finished the sandwich and found a drinking fountain to wash it all down. He had another 10 minutes on his lunch break, but had very little to occupy himself for that long, so he went off in search of his supervisor.
“Come into the office,” the man said. Rocky could see he didn’t look happy. They entered a conference room and his supervisor handed him an envelope. “Here, it’s the full day’s wages, you can head home now though.”
“I…I’m fired?”
“You’re let go.” The man said and wouldn’t quite meet his eyes. “The wine bottles all fell over and smashed, every last one. We’re going to have to let you go. I am sorry.”
“But… If I did something wrong, let me make it right, I’ll work overtime, or whatever I need to do to put it right.”
“Sorry,” the man shook his head and walked out of the conference room door as though he was running from a fire.
Rocky stood, envelope in his hand and tried to make sense of what had just happened. He opened the envelope, looking for answers, for clues, found only a check, made out to him, $120.00. they didn’t even take out taxes, no FICA. It was as if he’d never worked for them at all.
Rocky opened the door and walked out into the administration office. The doors were closed. He looked at the face of the receptionist, she was as closed as the doors were.
“I don’t understand,” he told her.
“I’m going to need your parking permit,” she said, holding out her hand.
“I don’t have one,” he said, still numb. “I don’t have a car.”
“Just a minute.” She tapped away on her keyboard for a while and nodded. “I see here that you were never issued a parking pass, is that correct?”
“Yes…” Rocky said patiently, “that’s correct.”
“Then you don’t have to stay, you can leave.” She sniffed and returned to her screen. She typed away ferociously and Rocky became a non-entity just like that.
There was nothing else to do. Rocky showed himself out and walked out of the door he’d just entered that morning for the first time. He walked along the length of the building toward the bus stop. As he walked by the loading dock he looked inside the warehouse. The
stack of wine boxes he’d unpacked and stacked still stood in the same place, the same slight sag in the middle of the pile.
He lied. The wine didn’t fall, but damaging that much merchandise is the reason they gave for firing me.
The loading door came down in front of him, shutting him off forever from the warehouse.
He walked to the bus stop and headed home, his head swimming with questions.
“That makes no damn sense!” Val exploded when he told her. “You did what you were told to do, you did it the way they told you and they made up some bullshit so they could fire you?”
Rocky shrugged. “I don’t know! Maybe they just didn’t like me. I have seen it before, people look at me and they get scared, maybe…”
“Did they know you’re a fighter?”
“Yeah. I had it on the application, I talked with the manager about it, he was kind of… a little star-struck. He’s a fight fan.”
Val stood behind him and began rubbing his back. “It doesn’t make sense though.” She kissed his head and wrapped her arms around him. “I know what might cheer you up…” She laid her chin on his head. “I got hired today.”
Rocky turned to look at her. He tried to work up enthusiasm for her, but he was still… poleaxed.
“Where?”
“A place called Jonny’s. It’s a little bar that caters to the biker crowd. Jonny knows the Gilas, though not personally, I guess he knows of the Gilas and he was impressed with me. He also said I can break any hand that lands on my butt, so that’s good, huh?”
Rocky smiled and pulled her into his lap. “Well, that sounds like fun, anyway. When do you start?”
“In about… four hours,” she said, wrapping a hand around his neck. “Just enough time to play a little bit.” She kissed his cheek.
Rocky held her tightly and buried his face in her neck, kissing her jaw and running his hands over her back and sides. “I think I need to wait a bit,” he said to her hair. “I’m still…”
“Honeymoon’s over,” she said and smiled. “Hey, just kidding. I understand, it was a rough day, I just thought that it might take your mind off of things.” She looked around as if there were a thousand eyes in their room. She whipped off her shirt and settled in, placing his hand on her breast. “Is it working?”
Rocky laughed and flexed his fingers. “Yeah, sure seems to be.”
She wiggled on his lap, giggling. “Oh yeah, there it is.” She leaned over and attacked him, laying him on the bed and straddling his waist.
“How much longer did you say you have until you have to leave?” Rocky asked.
“About four hours.”
“Then let’s not waste time!” He said and lifted her off of him, holding her by the waist and dropping her on the bed beside him. Val laughed as he tore off her pants and then his.
For the next three hours and fifty-nine minutes, she kept him… distracted.
Chapter 16
“You seeing anybody, girly?”
Val sighed. It was always the same when you started. They tested you and came at you with sexist jokes and raunchy humor. They were regulars and wanted to know how far they could push her, how much she would be willing to “play.” She didn’t mind the back and forth, so long as everyone kept their busy little hand to themselves. She still felt Rocky on her skin and she wanted to hold onto that for a while.
Diaz called soon after she’d left. Rocky had sent her a message. Val wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep her phone, but for now, it worked and they were taking advantage of it. Diaz had found Rocky another job for the morning, so they had some basis to work on. The damn investigation was dragging, and the fight Rocky was looking forward to as a foot in the door had been officially canceled. She wanted to be there for him, to distract him again, but they needed the money, so she gathered three bottles of beer and two glasses and hustled them out to the pool table. Somehow in all of that she’d made the decision to stay without ever actually making the decision to stay. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about all that.
“Yeah,” she said, smiling, and leaning over to the grinning biker, “I live with an MMA cage fighter, so watch it.”
“Really?” The man next to him challenged her. “Who?”
“Rocky Veliz.” She spoke the name with a certain pride and satisfaction.
“No shit?” Another voice from a nearby table spoke up. “I saw him at Sturgis!” He grinned. “He was in this… shit! That was you!” His eyes grew wide.
“What?” The first man seemed pissed that others were moving in on his time, but when he saw the change in the other’s face, his curiosity got the better of him. “What? Who?”
“You remember there was this huge knuckle duster over a bike…” He thought for a moment. “…a Crocker, wasn’t it?” He asked Val for confirmation to her own story.
She smiled and nodded. “Fully restored,” she added just for effect.
“Yeah, anyway, there were two groups that had a knock-down drag out and the smaller group kicked their asses.” He gestured to Val with his beer. “They had a pro cage fighter and a little slip of a girl with them.” His grin grew wider. “I seen you fight!” He said, sounding very proud.
“Yeah?” Val said, cocking her hip. “What did you think?”
“I think I’m not going to grab for your ass anytime soon. Hell, you don’t need a tough boyfriend.” He laughed. It seemed like it was a sound that came easy to him.
“Oh, come on!” The first one said. “Look at her, she’s like… pocket sized! How bad could it be?”
“Leroy,” the other one said slowly, “I seen you fight, too. She could kick your ass and not even break a nail.”
There was general laughter at that, but the one called Leroy clouded up and gave the other man an intense glare. Val had seen this before and had no desire to make an enemy on her first day. “Your name is ‘Leroy’?” she asked.
“Yeah, so?”
“So, that beer’s on me. It’s my first day on the job and you’re the first one to try and pick me up. So that one’s free, alright?”
Leroy blinked and nodded, not entirely sure what just happened. He pulled his beer thoughtfully and smacked his lips.
“I’m Harley,” the one who recognized her said. “No relation.”
“Terry,” said another and one by one the men and women who hung at the bar called out their names.
“How you all doing tonight?” Val called back. “My name’s Val and thank you for making feel welcomed.”
There was a general round of applause and some good-natured suggestions that a naked waitress was sure to get better tips. At least, Val was pretty sure he’d said ”tips,” but it was the same sort of rough teasing that she knew from the Gilas and rather than feeling offended, she felt a little homesick for them.
She went back to the bar and Jonny was standing there, pouring out a whisky and shaking his head. “I never seen that before. You haven’t been here an hour and you got them eating out of the palm of your hand.”
“I owe you a beer,” Val said, “but you’re going to have to take it out of my check or tips at the end of the day…”
“No.” Jonny chuckled. “It was worth the price of a bottle to watch that. Keep your money, that one is on me.” He turned back to her and said, “Just that one, though!”
Val smiled and pinky swore.
The customers came and went, Val made a positive impression on the regulars and her reputation from Sturgis made the rounds faster than she did. Some pulled out phones and looked up one Rocky Veliz and that image was suddenly shunted to every woman in the place. Val found herself promising more than one starry-eyed woman that Rocky would be in to visit real soon.
Jonny told her that if she could plan the day, he’d have Rocky over for an autograph session, the thought of future beer sales sending off dollar signs in his eyes.
It was a little after ten when Jonny called her back behind the bar. “Who did you piss off?” He yelled into her ear
to be heard over the sound of the blaring music.
Val looked at him, puzzled.
Jonny leaned down again. The noise level precluded a private conversation, but this was as close as he could manage. “Some greaseball was in the alley,” he said and shrugged. “The bathroom was busy and I was in a hurry.”
Val shot him a look, but let it go.
“Some greaseball, skinny guy with a ‘stash comes up to me and tells me that you don’t have a right to work in the US, and I could get shut down by hiring you.”
“What did you tell him?” Val asked, feeling her back come up.
“I told him to shove his Mercedes up his ass!” He looked at her. “You are a citizen, right?”
“Born and raised!” Val yelled back.
“Figured. So he starts talking about all the bad things that could happen.”
“To me?”
“To me, if you work here.”
“What happened?” Val asked.
“I put my fist up his… let’s see… left nostril.” Jonny said with a grin. “Felt good.”
“I don’t want to cause trouble for you…” Val was appalled. It sounded like that fight promoter, but that didn’t make any sense either. What should he care about where she worked? Not to mention, as far as she knew, Rocky hadn’t even given him an answer yet.